Monday, April 30, 2012

Did you run in the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon on Sunday? Over 2500 runners participated this year in the 12th annual race. What does this have to do with Phish, you ask? Well, if you were one of the runners this year, you may have noticed a very weird and fun surprise on the race route....

Thursday, April 26, 2012

The monthly Jiggs Digs series continues with a bit of a change up.Have
you ever been unsure of what was being teased in a certain show and run
to Phish.net to look it up? Have you ever double checked a setlist for
the order of the songs played? If you have, you may have Scott Marks to
thank for that, at least in part.

This month, Jiggs Digs features Scott, who besides creating an extremely comprehensive tease chart, helps to update, revise, and maintain the setlists we hold so dear. After submitting his edits of the 2nd Phish Companion to Ellis Goddard and Charlie Dirksenin 2009, he joined the Phish.net team later that year.

1. I know you have spoke about this on the phish.net forums, but can you briefly describe how you got involved with the site? I started to collect all of the shows in circulation and began to make corrections to my copy of The Phish Companion. I eventually got in touch with Ellis Goddard and Charlie Dirksen, who were (and still are) members of the Mockingbird Foundation and Phish.net, passed along a list of corrections to rebuild the setlist file that they had, and got in "on the ground floor" when Adam Scheinberg built the revised phish.net in 2009.

2. How much Phish do you listen to on a daily basis?It depends - if I'm working on Phish.net setlists or have a long car ride, I'll listen to quite a bit, but I usually like to mix up what I'm listening to. The setlist corrections bring me back to Phish if I've taken a day or two off. I'll listen to every submission to verify the addition before updating the setlist file on the site. Constantly finding new things teased keeps Phish's past shows fresh and exciting for me.

3. What do you listen to when you aren’t listening to Phish? Bob Dylan, Wilco, Led Zeppelin, The Talking Heads, Pink Floyd, Pearl Jam, The Rolling Stones, and a ton of other bands. My iPod and iTunes libraries are filled with almost every genre of music and I'm constantly discovering or being introduced to new music.

4. Time Machine Question: What show would you go back and see if you had the ability, and why? Phish's first show. I would love to see what the band was like at their first gig (the same goes for the first Nectar's show on 12/1/84) and 8/13/93 because it's my favorite show that I wasn't at.

5. Have you ever discovered something you haven’t heard when going back over an older recording?Constantly. I think your ears get used to listening for certain things in a song or certain members in the band. I'll have something on in the background and stop what I'm doing to go back to relisten to something to see if I really heard a tease. The fact that there's still so much uncharted territory on shows or songs that I haven't listened to keeps my work exciting.

6. Can you talk about some of the challenges involved with rebuilding the tease chart?Putting it together took a bit of time and then checking it for accuracy. The tease chart is constantly updated with each new submission we add. (check out this comprehensive chart here)

7. Does having such intimate knowledge of the band’s nuances take anything away from your enjoyment of a show? Like seeing the magician’s trap door?I think having that intimate knowledge enriches the experience for me. Know what happened in the past and what the band is capable on any given night is a major reason why I keep coming back night after night.

8. Describe your perfect show experience.A good view of the band, no distractions from people around me, a five song set thrown in and a bustout or two that I've been craving.

9. If you could change anything about the community, what would it be?That's a tough question. I think trying to walk into a show with no expectations and not wishing that the band was playing like they did in the past.

10. What does the future hold for Phish.net?There are a lot of projects that everybody's involved in, whether it be segue corrections, song history updates, sideshows being filled in. Phish.net is always evolving.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Introducing the "A laser pointer doesn't make you Chris Kuroda" pin. Out of all the ideas I have come up with, this is arguably the most popular. It makes me wonder why I didn't do this pin first. Help spread the word from your hat or lapel.

2 colors against silver metal, the first in the series is Green and Black similar to the original T shirt. Each color will be a LE run of 50 pins. They are sequentially numbered from 1 to 50, and feature 2 posts and the Jiggs logo stamp on the back.

A simple, straightforward way to say how you feel. $15, with shipping included, and each one comes with the sticker.Get yours here.

UPDATE:These will be a series of 5 pins total.
The 5th pin will be an open edition.